Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane postponed original plans to play in Europe when former teammate Adam Burish helped organize the Champs for Charity game.

But after playing in Friday's game, Kane will be heading across the pond.

Kane has signed with EHC Biel, a National League A squad in Switzerland. Kane tweeted the news on Tuesday afternoon ("Excited and thankful to join EHC Biel in the Swiss league. Looking forward to the experience"). His agent, Pat Brisson, confirmed that Kane will play in Friday's Champs for Charity game with current and former Blackhawks, then depart for Switzerland.

Kane said he was close to signing with a European squad early last week. But NHL and NHLPA negotations were looking promising about a week ago; that, and Burish coming up with this game, were enough to keep Kane's plans on hold.

"Yeah, I would say I was close, maybe a week or two to going over," Kane said last Wednesday at the Champs for Charity press conference. "I'm just waiting for the right situation and things like that. You hear about this game and you hear (how) negotiations are going, you don't want to make any rush to go over there and come back after a couple of weeks. We'll see what happens."

But negotiations have taken a nosedive since then, with no talks currently scheduled between the two sides. So Kane will head to EHC Biel, where he will play for as long as the lockout goes. Boston's Tyler Seguin is also signed with EHC Biel.